Kids Grocery Shopping List

Okay, here's a post for you mom's out there with kiddos in tow for your shopping trips. 

How do you go about your grocery shopping with your littles who are just too young to really help out but old enough to get into mischief? 

Honestly this is an area that I have been privileged to have my husband around, so for the most part there have always been two sets of hands with the kids and we only have three children so it's been pretty easy.

This is a choice on our part, how we as a family like to do things: together.  I have asked if Nathan would like me to take over the grocery shopping and errands by myself and thus far he's answered that he likes to do it together.  We've always done it together.  So we choose to go as a family one evening a week or when we're already in town on Saturday or Sunday.  It works great for our family and I love it, because I just love being with my husband and family no matter what we're doing. 

But there are occasions that I go by myself with the kids.  And I don't have the benefit and blessing of family in town who can watch my kids while I run errands so when I came across the idea of a grocery shopping list for the kids, I was sold!

I am telling you this idea is awesome!  I've already tried it and it has worked great, my kids loved it and had such a great time during out grocery shopping trip.  They were busy keeping an eye out for the items on their list and they were so excited when we found one and they could mark it off.  Their hands were filled with their clip board and pen so they weren't going for everything else they saw.  They had the opportunity to be responsible and they did great!

I did have to set some parameters.  The children had to know that this was a privilege to have their own shopping list, and if they disobeyed the rules of using it, I would take it away.  My rules were that it was not a coloring sheet that they could color at will.  The markers were only to be opened and used once an item was found and put into the shopping cart, only then could the item be marked off their list.  The clipboard is not a toy or something to be played with, instead it was their own shopping list that they needed to show responsibility in using and to take care of it.  Simple.

The kids felt so proud and had a sense of responsibility that they had their own list and that they were helping mom with finding items while we were grocery shopping. 

It has been a great learning tool and help!

There are so many ways to use this idea.  You could even use a different 'shopping list' on each side.  Or use one for other errands than grocery shopping.  Use this idea for car rides, print out pictures of things your kids will see while on a long car trip, as they see an item such as a red car, a lake, or an airplane, they can mark it off their list and try to get 5 in a row.  The options are endless!

Here's is how I put our 'kids shopping list' together:

First I just made the kids' list on a word document using picart that I found from the internet.  I turned the page to landscape and divided it into two lists.

 Then I printed it out.

 And used my scrapbook cutter to cut it in half, into the two lists.  You can simply use scissors for this but I am the worst straight line cutter there ever was!

 There you go, two shopping lists!  You could leave them like this but I would highly suggest laminating them so they are reusable, less paper and ink and time!

 I bought the laminating sheets from Wal-Mart, its the first time I've used this specific kind.  We'll see how well it holds up before I give my final say.  I simply followed the instructions to laminate the shopping lists.

 I layed out the list face down and centered it.

 Then I followed the instructions on how to seal it, then pressed and smoothed and pressed some more...

 The sealed grocery list!

It was too big for the mini clip boards that I bought so I trimmed it down with my cutter.

Final look, perfect!

 You don't have to laminate them, this is our first grocery list.  But they get pretty worn and like I mentioned before, less time and money in the long run if you laminate them, since they now become reusable!

I found these clipboards at Wal-Mart also, but I've seen them lots of other places too.  They are the half size ones.

 We're currently using dry erase markers, but they do have dry erase crayons as well, we'll see which ones we like better.

The kids mark it up,

 And since I always have baby wipes on hand right now, I use them to wipe it clean.  Any wet napkin or cloth works just as great!

 So there you have it.  My kids have their own 'shopping list'!  And in the near future I'll be making one up for our car trip with things they'll see while riding in the car.

 Just for your information, I keep them stored in the van so we'll always have them whenever we go grocery shopping.  I have a little drawer under the passenger seat and I keep the markers in a bag so I can just throw them in my purse when we head inside and then hand them out once everyone gets settled and head off to do our grocery shopping!

This really is such a simple and effective tool to use for your kids!  The whole project probably only took me an hour or less to put together.  The most time consuming part was finding the pictures I wanted to use.  And like I mentioned before it can be used in so many different ways.  Just have fun with it!